All in the Family: A Study of Intra-familial Violence in the Los Angeles Jewish community

This thesis explores intra-familial violence in the Los Angeles Jewish Community. The authors describe how the myth of family consensus and harmony is widely-believed in both American society and within the Jewish community. Prior to this study, research has revealed very little Jewish intra-familial violence. The authors investigated the following hypotheses:

1. Violence is not absent in synagogue-affiliated families.

2. Whatever violence occurs, is not exposed to synagogue professionals by the families in which it occurs.

3. Rabbis have some knowledge of the problem of Jewish family violence.

4. Jews do not believe that family violence is a problem in the Jewish community.

The authors explore the problem of physical family violence from two perspectives: generic social work literature, and Jewish legal and literary writings.